By Luz Maria Garcini
Garcini is the director of the Center for Community and Public Health at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
When I think about food, I’m filled with a deep sense of pride and gratitude grounded in my cultural identity as a Mexican immigrant. But that wasn’t always my story.
I was raised in Mexico City in a conservative family. When I became pregnant at 16, everything changed almost overnight. My family withdrew support and I had to leave school, find a home and get a job. I sold clothes at a flea market, where I faced the same decision every day: nutrition or affordability?
On one side, a stand sold fresh juices and smoothies — nutritious and energizing, but definitely out of reach. On the other, tlacoyos — incredibly delicious and very affordable, but not the best food for a pregnant mom.
Even after I moved to the U.S., things didn’t change much. Cleaning houses during the day and picking up night shifts cleaning offices still didn’t guarantee stable food for our family
I wish my story was rare, but it’s not. Two in five Houston households are living with food insecurity, meaning they lack access to sufficient, nutritious food, a number that should stop us in our tracks. That burden falls hardest on communities already bearing the weight of structural inequality, including Aldine, Greenspoint, Pasadena and Spring.
At the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, we’re listening carefully to our local partners and drawing insights from data to address widespread food insecurity in Houston. Last week, we co-hosted a community health summit with the Houston Food Bank, convening 180 local nonprofit officials and advocates to brainstorm innovative partnerships, promote stakeholder engagement and identify avenues for change.
Again and again in the conversations, the same obstacles continue to surface, along with solutions that will require all of us to work in tandem.
Facing four hurdles
Our conversations with Houston-area advocates and community leaders consistently reveal four main challenges for tackling food insecurity.
One is the scarcity of disaggregated data. We need more detailed information to understand who is most at risk and how different communities are affected by this issue.
Even the data we have, rich as it is, isn’t enough on its own. Numbers can tell us how big the problem is and where it’s concentrated, but not the how and why. Without a deeper understanding of people’s lived experiences, we can’t design solutions that actually work for families facing this reality.
Fragmented effort is another persistent obstacle. Many organizations are doing vitally important work, but not always in alignment and often with limited resources. Programs sometimes focus on food access without addressing the financial barriers that prevent families from sustaining it long-term.
And in some neighborhoods, the basic infrastructure for food security simply isn't there.
No nearby grocery stores, leaving families to pay inflated prices at whatever shop is accessible. Unreliable transportation that makes buying and hauling groceries a logistical ordeal. Food distribution programs that aren't consistent or sustained because funding dries up. Clinical screenings that identify food insecurity but have no referral pathway to actually help patients navigate solutions.
Seeking big solutions
If we want different outcomes, we have to address these root challenges, which require moving from isolated efforts to aligned action. The question, then, becomes how can we do this together.
The good news is that Houston has done hard things before. We have recovered after hurricanes, mobilized after devastating floods and coordinated across sectors to become a national model for reducing homelessness. If we can do that for disaster recovery and housing stability, we can do it for food security.
That means aligning sectors. Health care, education, housing, workforce, transportation and food systems are not separate issues. They are interconnected drivers of stability.
It means clarifying roles and reducing duplication. Not everyone needs to do everything, but everyone needs to know what they can uniquely contribute.
And it means investing upstream, addressing wages, affordability and infrastructure so we reduce need over time rather than simply respond to it.
Through it all, solutions must be shaped by the lived experience of the communities most impacted — built with them, not just for them.
The Houston Food Bank is showing up every day, and we are fortunate to have them as a partner. But distribution alone does not solve the problem. The measure of our city will not be how much food we can distribute, but how many households we can stabilize — and how many people we can provide with a real opportunity to thrive.
Imagine a Houston where access to nutritious food is no longer a program, but a promise we can keep. The talent, leadership and commitment needed to solve this challenge already exist. Let's invest in it.
